October 19, 2017

I love this story. These Jewish guys who do exorcisms found this possessed person and thought they’d try throwing out Jesus name to see if it worked. They get this possessed guy and they give it a try and the response is amazing. He beats them up, strips them naked, kicks them out into the streets because they don’t have any authority. There are a whole lot of different ways of reading this, and the story may seem a little weird because of demons and exorcism and all that, but let me ask, can you relate?

Have you ever tried to throw around the Jesus card? Maybe you don’t go at people possessed but isn’t true for most of us that we tend to try Jesus stuff a lot harder when things are rough? Isn’t it true that we become a lot more spiritual in a struggle? We go to church more regularly after we’ve made stupid mistakes? We tend to just throw out the Jesus stuff to see if it works. And we realize that there is no power in it, cause we’re just using it. Jesus becomes the means and not the end.

Here is how great God is though. Ready for this? At the end of the story of a few crappy people trying to misuse his name and trying to throw some of the Jesus stuff at it, he turns it around so the people confess, repent, and people believe. He took their horrible mistake and used it for his mission.

God is going to work with or without you. He is going to get his word to the lost. Are you going to be a part of it? Is Jesus the end game for you? Or are you simply using him to get what you want?